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The Rules of Pacers Digest

Hello everyone,

Whether your are a long standing forum member or whether you have just registered today, it's a good idea to read and review the rules below so that you have a very good idea of what to expect when you come to Pacers Digest.

A quick note to new members: Your posts will not immediately show up when you make them. An administrator has to approve at least your first post before the forum software will later upgrade your account to the status of a fully-registered member. This usually happens within a couple of hours or so after your post(s) is/are approved, so you may need to be a little patient at first.

Why do we do this? So that it's more difficult for spammers (be they human or robot) to post, and so users who are banned cannot immediately re-register and start dousing people with verbal flames.

Below are the rules of Pacers Digest. After you have read them, you will have a very good sense of where we are coming from, what we expect, what we don't want to see, and how we react to things.

Rule #1

Pacers Digest is intended to be a place to discuss basketball without having to deal with the kinds of behaviors or attitudes that distract people from sticking with the discussion of the topics at hand. These unwanted distractions can come in many forms, and admittedly it can sometimes be tricky to pin down each and every kind that can rear its ugly head, but we feel that the following examples and explanations cover at least a good portion of that ground and should at least give people a pretty good idea of the kinds of things we actively discourage:

"Anyone who __________ is a liar / a fool / an idiot / a blind homer / has their head buried in the sand / a blind hater / doesn't know basketball / doesn't watch the games"

"People with intelligence will agree with me when I say that __________"

"Only stupid people think / believe / do ___________"

"I can't wait to hear something from PosterX when he/she sees that **insert a given incident or current event that will have probably upset or disappointed PosterX here**"

"He/she is just delusional"

"This thread is stupid / worthless / embarrassing"

"I'm going to take a moment to point and / laugh at PosterX / GroupOfPeopleY who thought / believed *insert though/belief here*"

"Remember when PosterX said OldCommentY that no longer looks good? "

In general, if a comment goes from purely on topic to something 'ad hominem' (personal jabs, personal shots, attacks, flames, however you want to call it, towards a person, or a group of people, or a given city/state/country of people), those are most likely going to be found intolerable.

We also dissuade passive aggressive behavior. This can be various things, but common examples include statements that are basically meant to imply someone is either stupid or otherwise incapable of holding a rational conversation. This can include (but is not limited to) laughing at someone's conclusions rather than offering an honest rebuttal, asking people what game they were watching, or another common problem is Poster X will say "that player isn't that bad" and then Poster Y will say something akin to "LOL you think that player is good". We're not going to tolerate those kinds of comments out of respect for the community at large and for the sake of trying to just have an honest conversation.

Now, does the above cover absolutely every single kind of distraction that is unwanted? Probably not, but you should by now have a good idea of the general types of things we will be discouraging. The above examples are meant to give you a good feel for / idea of what we're looking for. If something new or different than the above happens to come along and results in the same problem (that being, any other attitude or behavior that ultimately distracts from actually just discussing the topic at hand, or that is otherwise disrespectful to other posters), we can and we will take action to curb this as well, so please don't take this to mean that if you managed to technically avoid saying something exactly like one of the above examples that you are then somehow off the hook.

That all having been said, our goal is to do so in a generally kind and respectful way, and that doesn't mean the moment we see something we don't like that somebody is going to be suspended or banned, either. It just means that at the very least we will probably say something about it, quite possibly snipping out the distracting parts of the post in question while leaving alone the parts that are actually just discussing the topics, and in the event of a repeating or excessive problem, then we will start issuing infractions to try to further discourage further repeat problems, and if it just never seems to improve, then finally suspensions or bans will come into play. We would prefer it never went that far, and most of the time for most of our posters, it won't ever have to.

A slip up every once and a while is pretty normal, but, again, when it becomes repetitive or excessive, something will be done. Something occasional is probably going to be let go (within reason), but when it starts to become habitual or otherwise a pattern, odds are very good that we will step in.

There's always a small minority that like to push people's buttons and/or test their own boundaries with regards to the administrators, and in the case of someone acting like that, please be aware that this is not a court of law, but a private website run by people who are simply trying to do the right thing as they see it. If we feel that you are a special case that needs to be dealt with in an exceptional way because your behavior isn't explicitly mirroring one of our above examples of what we generally discourage, we can and we will take atypical action to prevent this from continuing if you are not cooperative with us.

Also please be aware that you will not be given a pass simply by claiming that you were 'only joking,' because quite honestly, when someone really is just joking, for one thing most people tend to pick up on the joke, including the person or group that is the target of the joke, and for another thing, in the event where an honest joke gets taken seriously and it upsets or angers someone, the person who is truly 'only joking' will quite commonly go out of his / her way to apologize and will try to mend fences. People who are dishonest about their statements being 'jokes' do not do so, and in turn that becomes a clear sign of what is really going on. It's nothing new.

In any case, quite frankly, the overall quality and health of the entire forum's community is more important than any one troublesome user will ever be, regardless of exactly how a problem is exhibiting itself, and if it comes down to us having to make a choice between you versus the greater health and happiness of the entire community, the community of this forum will win every time.

Lastly, there are also some posters, who are generally great contributors and do not otherwise cause any problems, who sometimes feel it's their place to provoke or to otherwise 'mess with' that small minority of people described in the last paragraph, and while we possibly might understand why you might feel you WANT to do something like that, the truth is we can't actually tolerate that kind of behavior from you any more than we can tolerate the behavior from them. So if we feel that you are trying to provoke those other posters into doing or saying something that will get themselves into trouble, then we will start to view you as a problem as well, because of the same reason as before: The overall health of the forum comes first, and trying to stir the pot with someone like that doesn't help, it just makes it worse. Some will simply disagree with this philosophy, but if so, then so be it because ultimately we have to do what we think is best so long as it's up to us.

If you see a problem that we haven't addressed, the best and most appropriate course for a forum member to take here is to look over to the left of the post in question. See underneath that poster's name, avatar, and other info, down where there's a little triangle with an exclamation point (!) in it? Click that. That allows you to report the post to the admins so we can definitely notice it and give it a look to see what we feel we should do about it. Beyond that, obviously it's human nature sometimes to want to speak up to the poster in question who has bothered you, but we would ask that you try to refrain from doing so because quite often what happens is two or more posters all start going back and forth about the original offending post, and suddenly the entire thread is off topic or otherwise derailed. So while the urge to police it yourself is understandable, it's best to just report it to us and let us handle it. Thank you!

All of the above is going to be subject to a case by case basis, but generally and broadly speaking, this should give everyone a pretty good idea of how things will typically / most often be handled.

Rule #2

If the actions of an administrator inspire you to make a comment, criticism, or express a concern about it, there is a wrong place and a couple of right places to do so.

The wrong place is to do so in the original thread in which the administrator took action. For example, if a post gets an infraction, or a post gets deleted, or a comment within a larger post gets clipped out, in a thread discussing Paul George, the wrong thing to do is to distract from the discussion of Paul George by adding your off topic thoughts on what the administrator did.

The right places to do so are:

A) Start a thread about the specific incident you want to talk about on the Feedback board. This way you are able to express yourself in an area that doesn't throw another thread off topic, and this way others can add their two cents as well if they wish, and additionally if there's something that needs to be said by the administrators, that is where they will respond to it.

B) Send a private message to the administrators, and they can respond to you that way.

If this is done the wrong way, those comments will be deleted, and if it's a repeating problem then it may also receive an infraction as well.

Rule #3

If a poster is bothering you, and an administrator has not or will not deal with that poster to the extent that you would prefer, you have a powerful tool at your disposal, one that has recently been upgraded and is now better than ever: The ability to ignore a user.

When you ignore a user, you will unfortunately still see some hints of their existence (nothing we can do about that), however, it does the following key things:

A) Any post they make will be completely invisible as you scroll through a thread.

B) The new addition to this feature: If someone QUOTES a user you are ignoring, you do not have to read who it was, or what that poster said, unless you go out of your way to click on a link to find out who it is and what they said.

To utilize this feature, from any page on Pacers Digest, scroll to the top of the page, look to the top right where it says 'Settings' and click that. From the settings page, look to the left side of the page where it says 'My Settings', and look down from there until you see 'Edit Ignore List' and click that. From here, it will say 'Add a Member to Your List...' Beneath that, click in the text box to the right of 'User Name', type in or copy & paste the username of the poster you are ignoring, and once their name is in the box, look over to the far right and click the 'Okay' button. All done!

Rule #4

Regarding infractions, currently they carry a value of one point each, and that point will expire in 31 days. If at any point a poster is carrying three points at the same time, that poster will be suspended until the oldest of the three points expires.

Rule #5

When you share or paste content or articles from another website, you must include the URL/link back to where you found it, who wrote it, and what website it's from. Said content will be removed if this doesn't happen.

An example:

If I copy and paste an article from the Indianapolis Star website, I would post something like this:

http://www.linktothearticlegoeshere.com/article
Title of the Article
Author's Name
Indianapolis Star

Rule #6

We cannot tolerate illegal videos on Pacers Digest. This means do not share any links to them, do not mention any websites that host them or link to them, do not describe how to find them in any way, and do not ask about them. Posts doing anything of the sort will be removed, the offenders will be contacted privately, and if the problem becomes habitual, you will be suspended, and if it still persists, you will probably be banned.

The legal means of watching or listening to NBA games are NBA League Pass Broadband (for US, or for International; both cost money) and NBA Audio League Pass (which is free). Look for them on NBA.com.

Rule #7

Provocative statements in a signature, or as an avatar, or as the 'tagline' beneath a poster's username (where it says 'Member' or 'Administrator' by default, if it is not altered) are an unwanted distraction that will more than likely be removed on sight. There can be shades of gray to this, but in general this could be something political or religious that is likely going to provoke or upset people, or otherwise something that is mean-spirited at the expense of a poster, a group of people, or a population.

It may or may not go without saying, but this goes for threads and posts as well, particularly when it's not made on the off-topic board (Market Square).

We do make exceptions if we feel the content is both innocuous and unlikely to cause social problems on the forum (such as wishing someone a Merry Christmas or a Happy Easter), and we also also make exceptions if such topics come up with regards to a sports figure (such as the Lance Stephenson situation bringing up discussions of domestic abuse and the law, or when Jason Collins came out as gay and how that lead to some discussion about gay rights).

However, once the discussion seems to be more/mostly about the political issues instead of the sports figure or his specific situation, the thread is usually closed.

Rule #8

We prefer self-restraint and/or modesty when making jokes or off topic comments in a sports discussion thread. They can be fun, but sometimes they derail or distract from a topic, and we don't want to see that happen. If we feel it is a problem, we will either delete or move those posts from the thread.

Rule #9

Generally speaking, we try to be a "PG-13" rated board, and we don't want to see sexual content or similarly suggestive content. Vulgarity is a more muddled issue, though again we prefer things to lean more towards "PG-13" than "R". If we feel things have gone too far, we will step in.

Rule #10

We like small signatures, not big signatures. The bigger the signature, the more likely it is an annoying or distracting signature.

Rule #11

Do not advertise anything without talking about it with the administrators first. This includes advertising with your signature, with your avatar, through private messaging, and/or by making a thread or post.
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The Wolf Game Rules Thread

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  • The Wolf Game Rules Thread

    We have a pretty good thing going with wolf games again. That's great! I love TWG and all it's variations (The Mafia Game, TAG) so it's good that we have a group of players and some newbies that enjoy playing and are active. I think it's time we start actually writing down some of the nebulous rules that come into play from time to time when you play this on the internet.

    Mostly this all comes down to PMs and their effect on the game.

    In real life, the wolves can't get together secretly and make plans they have to talk in public and try to make plans without being caught, or just kill willy nilly and not try to hard during the day to use the numbers advantage.

    Online, one of the main things that's fun is scheming when you're a wolf so to take away secret communication would be taking away one of the best parts of the game, so if you allow the wolves to do it, you should let everyone PM each other. So what do you do when it comes to the rules governing PMs. Here are my suggested rules regarding PMs:

    1.) No copy and pasting PMs in thread to prove a point. You can take any knowledge you gain from PMs and weave them into your argument, but you can't just say, "here's this PM I got from so and so, he's a wolf, obviously I'm a human."

    2.) Seers and Angels (and wolves, although why?) can not reveal themselves in thread, but may do so in PMs. However, the seer may not use other humans as a proxy to tell other humans to vote certain ways.

    In real life seers try to make the case that people are either human or a wolf and sometimes being the seer means you're the most talkative so people tend to go with your ideas, then the wolves kill you. It's a hard role to stay alive and be effective at. Online, you want to do the opposite. Lay low, don't get caught and spread your knowledge to as many people as possible. But if the seer online is able to just have a human say, "the seer saw these two people, they are wolves, vote them out" then it makes the seer to powerful. Humans don't mind dying if they are gonna take some wolves out with them so they can act like shields to the seer. It's a good strategy for the seer, and I commend binary for using it, but I think it should be disallowed in the future. -edit, we're going to try the infection rule to balance this strategy out

    Seers should have to try their best to convince people they are right about a player and hint that may be they know what they're talking about. When it comes to seers and PMs they can grow their support structure and more humans will know not to vote for other humans, and the seer can still be effective that way as well.

    3.) No using the forum software to overcome in game problems. Basically what LA did in TWG 20X6. It was a good move, and it helped the humans win the game, but I don't think it should be allowed in the future either.

    In order to help with that because the option would still be there and it would be impossible to police as a GM, I set up 4 gmail accounts.

    DigestGM at gmail
    DigestWolf1 at gmail
    DigestSeer at gmail
    DigestAngel at gmail

    The password for all of them is pacersdigest right now, but when we play a game and you are assigned that role (1 wolf will use the gmail account), you can go use that gmail account, change the password, and email the gm your choices so that you're not looking at the gms page or pming him. (and the seer and the angel should not email each other to find out who each other are, the gm should have access to your account so that if he sees that activity, both are revealed and killed in the next story)

    Also I'd ask people use the honor system and not use the forum to win.

    And now for some other rules plus the basic rules of TWG.

    1.) There are 21 players (I think this is the best ratio and an odd number means you start on a fake night where no one who really wants to play gets killed without playing at least one day.) 4 wolves, 1 seer, 1 angel, and 15 humans.

    2.) Wolves confer and eat one person every "night."

    3.) The seer finds out the role (human, angel, or wolf) of one person every "night."

    4.) The angel protects one person at night from being eaten. If the wolves select the same person as the angel, the next morning the story must reflect the fact that person was "saved" by the angel and no one died during the night.

    5.) Humans vote for someone to die during the "day." They may change their vote once per day. The person with the most votes at the end of the day is sent to die and the story reveals what that person was (wolf, seer, angel, or human).

    6.) Wolves win by outnumbering the humans during the "day" and over running the town and eating everyone remaining.

    7.) The humans (and the seer and angel) win by killing all of the wolves.




    That's it for me for now, any thoughts? Anybody that wants to play the next one or has a rule change to discuss, or wants to talk about mine, post in here!
    Last edited by Pig Nash; 07-03-2010, 12:19 AM.
    Play Mafia!
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  • #2
    Re: The Wolf Game Rules Thread

    Wait, what are the variations? Mafia? TAG?

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    • #3
      Re: The Wolf Game Rules Thread

      I do not have anything else to add, just wanted to say I had a blast! This is only my second game, but I have really enjoyed playing both times (and I did not realize this is a game you could play IRL. Would make for a interesting party game)

      It has been hard for me to stay active as of late with the new job and all, but the neat thing about TWG is it only takes a couple of seconds out of your day, though others may want to put more time in.

      Look foward to future TWG's.

      -VA

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: The Wolf Game Rules Thread

        We've actually never played them on PD. But I've played them in real life and online. They are both basically the same thing as TWG. The Alien Game uses Aliens instead of Wolves, and normally special robots or scientists for the Seer and Angel. The Mafia Game has mobsters, the stool pidgeon (the seer), and i forget what the angel is.

        Basically it's just so the whole, old tymey town thing doesn't get played out and you can play different characters and write different stories.
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        • #5
          Re: The Wolf Game Rules Thread

          Originally posted by Pig Nash View Post
          We've actually never played them on PD. But I've played them in real life and online. They are both basically the same thing as TWG. The Alien Game uses Aliens instead of Wolves, and normally special robots or scientists for the Seer and Angel. The Mafia Game has mobsters, the stool pidgeon (the seer), and i forget what the angel is.

          Basically it's just so the whole, old tymey town thing doesn't get played out and you can play different characters and write different stories.
          Kind of like our setting being in space this time as opposed to the Van Helsing days?

          How do you play this in real life? I aspire to make a drinking game out of this. Yeah, I probably have a problem.

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          • #6
            Re: The Wolf Game Rules Thread

            In the mafia I play with my friends every weekend, it is mafia, doctor (angel), and a sherriff (seer)


            Comment


            • #7
              Re: The Wolf Game Rules Thread

              Originally posted by cdash View Post
              Kind of like our setting being in space this time as opposed to the Van Helsing days?

              How do you play this in real life? I aspire to make a drinking game out of this. Yeah, I probably have a problem.
              You hand out cards for us when we play it is, Jacks are the villains (wolves, mafia, aliens, what have you), queen is the angel, doctor, protector, and a king is handed out for the seer, sheriff, etc. Everyone else just gets a numbered card. One person narrates and when you go to sleep everyone shuts their eyes then you have all the special roles wake up usually, villains first, then doctor/saving role, then the seeing role.


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              • #8
                Re: The Wolf Game Rules Thread

                In real life you have the players sit in a circle. The leader hands out cards generally Aces are the wolves, a king is the seer, and a queen is the angel. Everyone else gets number cards.

                The leader has everyone "go to sleep" (put their heads down) and tells the wolves to wake up. Silently they pick someone to kill, then the leader puts them to sleep, has the seer wake up and he/she picks someone to see, and the angel picks someone to protect once he/she is the one who is awake. Then everyone wakes up, the leader explains what happened in the night and then voting commences. Then it pretty much follows like we play online.
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                • #9
                  Re: The Wolf Game Rules Thread

                  Trader said it easier, but you get the idea.
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                  • #10
                    Re: The Wolf Game Rules Thread

                    We usually put an Ace in the deck we pass around and whoever gets that is the narrator.


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                    • #11
                      Re: The Wolf Game Rules Thread

                      I realize that you already went to the trouble of starting those accounts but perhaps a way to make it easier would be to start a new account here on PD. "The Wolf Game" could be the GM and would have everyone looking at its account for updates, Friend Requests, and PM's. We could practically play the game right on that accounts Profile since we are able to leave messages and send it PM's. Players could PM the "The Wolf Game" with their specific rule questions and the special roles can PM it with their decisions. The wolves would still have to communicate with each other more privately in order to avoid what happened here but I think all those extra accounts are going to get old and the passwords will get lost.

                      Its just a thought.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: The Wolf Game Rules Thread

                        That might be a better idea. I made those accounts and they all have the same password right now and the question to change it is "who is the founder of pd?" They won't get lost, but your solution may be more elegant.

                        Actually, thinking about it, isn't it just as bad at looking at a gm when you're looking at "The Wolf Game"?

                        Thanks for the suggestion though.
                        Play Mafia!
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                        • #13
                          Re: The Wolf Game Rules Thread

                          I still don't understand the no posting of PM's in the thread other th to protect a dumb player, more than likely one that is a wolf? If a wolf sends you something that you can use to your advantage why not be able to use it? What is the difference between posting it or PM'ing it to everyone? I don't really care either way, I just have not read a good reason not to be able to do it.

                          I think the extra e-mails or profiles are too much work. Why not just have the specials give the GM a real e-mail to use if we don't think the players can be honorable and not use the technology to gain an advantage? If you don't want to give your "real" e-mail then make up a dummy one of your own for the game. The less Hassle the better.

                          I would like to see voting extended until almost all the people vote. That means people should be encouraged not to play if they can't check in at least once a day. We do have to give people time to go back and read things before they vote. A couple votes were cut short a little too quickly, especially mine when TJ didn't even vote. I don't care what anyone says, but early voting patterns do emerge, especially if you know who is who.

                          I'd be willing to GM the next one if PN wants to play. I have a couple of scene ideas, but those seem to go out the window early anyway. I would be more likely to want to use one of my own e-mails to hav the specials contact me through and had been thinking going that route if i did G.

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                          • #14
                            Re: The Wolf Game Rules Thread

                            I just don't like copy/pasting pms. So maybe that is just me. And real email would be fine too, just figured I'd have the dummy emails ready if people wanted to use them.

                            I cut a few of the votes off fairly short because the majority was reached already. I prefer players don't wait around to see who everyone votes for before they vote unless I have a set time where it is going to end. I like having the moving timetable so I can post stories when I'm home and keep the game moving and not just having everyone sit there at night.

                            Bellisimo had suggested doing the mafia setting for the next game, if you'd like to do that. If you'd prefer to play, Ms. Piggy has said she had some ideas for stories as well.
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                            • #15
                              Re: The Wolf Game Rules Thread

                              I would rather play to be honest. I have more time during the summer to analyze things and read than during the school year. Of course summer is when we usually play. Ms. P. Can have this one if she really wants to. I can do one after I get back from vacation if everyone is still in the mood at the end of the month.

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